


the minecraft fic

by reveries_passions



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Crack, Gen, Minecraft, im so sorry for writing this its so bad, louis gets trapped in the game, theres no romance or anything its fully just minecraft plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-17 20:37:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20627183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reveries_passions/pseuds/reveries_passions
Summary: “Louis,” says Liam slowly, “What’s the last thing you remember watching before you woke up on that beach?”Louis shrugs. “Some video on that projector. You know, at the Minecon panel. It was a let’s play. For that awful game, you know, what’s it called…”“Minecraft?” Niall offers helpfully.“That’s the one!” Louis snaps his fingers. “I dozed off, and the next thing I know, I’m…”Suddenly, it all slots into place. The boys all share sympathetic smiles, as if they’ve read Louis’ mind, and know exactly what kind of conclusion he’s just come to. Miserably, Louis flops onto the table.“Don’t tell me I’m in that blocky hell dimension,” Louis wails.“You’re in the blocky hell dimension."or louis gets trapped in minecraft.





	the minecraft fic

**Author's Note:**

> ok so this was a big mistake, but i felt it was appropriate as my tenth posted work on ao3 to have it be...this.  
none of this fic was written when it wasn't late at night so that should tell you what my mental state was throughout this fics creation. i had so many epiphanies dude i hope you enjoy reading them all.  
special thanks to [liv](suspendrs.tumblr.com) for organizing this dope fest and making me write this thing!  
find me on tumblr [here](dystopianharry.tumblr.com).

**november, 2011 / las vegas / minecon 1**

Louis does not want to be here. 

That’s the first thing he notices when he walks into the convention center. That, the dirt block logos everywhere, the tweens shrieking maniacally at a giant projector where the latest  _ let’s play  _ is rolling, and how the decal on his staff shirt is already peeling and he’s only been here for about one minute. 

“Oh god.” 

There’s cardboard shit everywhere. Cutouts of blocky creatures and diamond swords left and right. So many goddamn parents. If a spark were to fly, this place would probably just explode because of all the flammable material, and it’d take Louis right on with it. 

It’s miserable. A grown ass man walks by wearing a box on his head. Louis thinks it’s supposed to be a cow. 

It takes him a couple minutes to find where he’s supposed to be. He knows he’s stationed in Section 3; vaguely remembers from the orientation where that is, and he tracks down the break room easily enough. The place is huge, which he knows, but it’s different with all the people around. Some teenager starts yelling about going to the Nether when he walks through a door that’s been decorated to fit the Minecraft theme—whatever that means. He can’t tell if it’s directed at him or not. 

He’s consoled, a little, when he enters the break room. Most of the people around are his age, and they all look sort of miserable too. There’s coffee everywhere, empty boxes of Munchkins scattered about, and across the room, he sees a guy he recognizes from training, so he begins his way over there, but before he can take a step, his path is blocked by someone who can’t be more than nineteen, but is wearing a manager lanyard, like he has jurisdiction over something, which he definitely shouldn’t, because he’s got tights on, and he’s wearing a giant box on his torso.

“Louis, right?”

Louis almost starts crying. This fucking man-child in the pixelated equivalent of a fursuit knows his name. 

“Slenderman?” Louis asks, forcing a smile. He doesn’t remember the kid’s name.

“Enderman!” the Enderman cosplayer corrects. “I’m Niall, in case you forgot. I’m manning the panel with you. How was your morning?” 

“Great,” Louis answers, but Louis is twenty-one years old and he has to spend his weekend stagehand-ing a panel of white guys older than him who make a living off a game where the most recognizable antagonist is called a creeper, so he’s really lying a lot. 

When he thinks about it, he kind of wants to throw up, so he doesn’t. 

“That’s good to hear! Do me a favor and help me bring this gear to the stage?” Niall, without waiting for a response, picks up a crate of mics and shoves it into Louis’ arms. Niall himself hauls up a case of water bottles and, with the brightest smile on his face, pushes past Louis and out through the door. 

Louis already has a headache, and he’s only been in this place for a few minutes. Niall is so happy about being here it makes Louis want to die, and they have to push through hordes of excited kids to get through to the stage, which is just now being prepped for the panel. 

The panel, Louis’ learned, is the highlight of Minecon. It’s what everyone’s paid to see. Ten or so Minecraft players, celebrities of the gaming community, talk for an hour, host a Q&A, and then promptly vanish into gaming booths to livestream their...building, or whatever it is Minecraft players do. 

Louis doesn’t know much about Minecraft, and he certainly would like to keep it that way. 

“So, how long have you been...into Minecraft?” Louis asks weakly in an attempt at making conversation. 

Niall, who, even underneath his box and while carrying pounds of water, hasn’t broken a sweat, says, “Oh, since the beginning. Since the pigs were green and there was only cobblestone.” Niall doesn’t elaborate, and Louis is already so confused he doesn’t ask any more questions. 

It’s half an hour to the start of the panel, and already, a small crowd has begun to gather in the first couple rows. They all are quickly drawn to the sight of Niall’s costume, and Niall stops to give them all high fives, which means he’s holding the case of water one handed, and he still seems fine, whereas Louis has been carrying less weight and feels on the verge of collapse. He wonders how many muscles Niall is hiding under his Enderman box. 

Louis drops the crate on the side of the stage. There are a few guys hanging out behind the backdrop of the stage, obscured from view, and Louis assumes these are the miners. Ha. Miners. 

Jesus. A degree in sound engineering and lighting technology for this. 

Twenty minutes later, and ten minutes to the panel, Louis has rigged up all the mics and is scrolling through his phone, when he notices just how many people have showed up. The roughly five thousand seats are almost completely filled, all the Minecrafters have arrived and are mingling “backstage”, and Louis is so close to getting paid for this shit. All he has to do is get these dweebs their mics and then he’s basically in the clear. 

Until he spots one of the Crafters sidling up to him, looking like he has a question Louis won’t be able to answer. He’s one of the ones who’s been here since early on; Louis spotted him sitting on the floor eating a banana when he showed up. He’s wearing a green shirt that says ‘ _ Creepers Gonna Creep _ ’ on it. He looks like an Afghan Hound and like if an Enderman were a person. An actual person, not Niall. 

“Hi,” the real life Enderman says. Louis doesn’t even know what an Enderman is. 

“Hi,” Louis says, and then goes back to looking at his phone. 

“I’m Harry.”

“Hi,” Louis repeats. 

“How are you?”

Louis looks up, and blinks. 

“Good, good,” the Enderman guy Harry says, as if Louis has responded to him and reciprocated the question, which he hasn’t. “You’re the Noteblock?” He nods to himself, gesturing at Louis’ shirt, and Louis gapes at him. “I got Noteblock vibes from you.” 

And then, like that’s a normal thing to say to someone, the Harry kid waves and walks away. 

Louis really would like to go home now. 

He has to see the Harry kid again when he hands him his mic as he walks onto the stage, and it’s pretty uncomfortable. Harry has, like, forgotten about the whole exchange. He smiles from ear to ear and silently takes the microphone with both hands, like he’s never held anything before. 

“ _ ...and let’s all give a warm welcome to our 2011 Minecon 1 gaming panel!”  _ the host is saying, and the gamers, each of whom has been equipped with mics by Louis, walk onstage to deafening cheers and applause. It’s obscene, the amount of support and monetization these kids get, just for playing a game and recording it. The panel, an hour and a half long, has barely started, and Louis already wishes it was over. He collapses into a chair and squints up at the stage.

“Shall we go down the line and introduce ourselves?” the host suggests, to more cheers. 

Louis doesn’t listen much; he only pays attention to that weird Harry’s introduction, and he does so with a sour frown on his face. 

“Hi, I’m Liam,” the one to his right says, and then Harry says, “My name’s Harry, nice to meet you all,” to more adolescent screams than Louis’ ever heard.

“I’m Zayn,” the next guy says, and then Louis tunes out. 

He doesn’t even realize he’s dozed off until a while later when he hears another loud cheer from the crowd, and when Louis opens his eyes, there’s a warmth that seems to consume him, and a bright light floods his vision, suddenly rousing him from his doze. It must be that the panel has ended and the lights have been brought up completely, so he blinks his eyes open, ready to collect the gamers’ microphones. He must’ve slept deeper than he’d realized, because his vision stays foggy; maybe his contact is falling out. He rubs his eyes and blinks up at the ceiling, only...the ceiling isn’t the ceiling. 

“What the fuck,” he mutters, and just now notices that he’s lying down. Did he dream that whole Minecon thing? He’s staring up at a clear blue sky, and a calm breeze rustles past. 

Louis sits up and looks around. He’s sat on a beach, ocean waves lapping at the sand gently. He’s surely dreaming right now. Louis’ lucid dreamed before; this is definitely one of those, but he doesn’t want to wake himself up just yet. 

To his right, the beach stretches into a grassy field, and further on, he can see a lush forest. To his left, the water goes on as far as he can see, with sandy islands scattered about. He pushes himself off the sand and onto his feet. His clothes have changed, too, which he’s never noticed in dreams until now. He’s wearing blue jeans, which real-Louis would never wear, and a plain turquoise t-shirt. 

He dusts off his clothes and starts walking inland. The grass seems clipped and well groomed, and there are clusters of wildflowers growing here and there. 

“Hello?” Louis calls. There’s a pit of doubt forming in his stomach, in only the way odd dreams provoke. “Is anyone out there?” 

In the distance, a cow moos. 

He looks up. The sun is directly above him, so it must be around noon. It’s warm, but not hot, and the sky is cloudless. There must be wildlife nearby, so he sets foot in the direction of the moo to investigate. 

He’s about halfway to the edge of the forest when, in the distance, music starts playing. He looks up, but it doesn’t seem to be coming from any direction. 

“Hello?” he calls again, and receives no response. It’s light, tinkly piano music, and unsettles him even more than he already is. 

Something moves at the edge of the forest, and Louis thinks it may be a person, so he breaks into a sprint. “Hello!” he shouts, waving his arms. “Can you help me?” 

But as he gets closer, he realizes the thing has four legs, not two, and it’s the thing that was making a mooing sound, but it doesn’t really look like a cow. It’s brown with white spots, but its face is a little too flat, and it’s shorter than Louis, which even he knows is impossible for a cow.

“What the fuck are you?” Louis asks the thing uselessly, and it moos again. 

Now that Louis is closer to the forest, he sees that there are some apples hanging from the trees here, and he can hear more sounds that signal life. Sheep. Chickens. Maybe a dog. He jumps up to reach a hanging apple and tugs it down from the branch. 

_ Fuck pesticides,  _ he thinks, and bites into it. So far, he hasn’t felt like waking up yet. This dream feels very real. He starts further into the forest, keeping his eye on the treeline so he knows how to get out, and is whistling to himself when he looks down and screams. 

There’s a massive opening in the ground from where it looks like the earth caved in to expose a bottomless ravine of jagged rocks. Louis stumbles backwards and falls back onto the ground, heart pounding. One more step and he would’ve fallen in. 

This dream is seeming less and less fun by the minute, and Louis pinches himself. “Wake up,” he says aloud, but nothing happens. All he notices is that the music has stopped playing.

“Wake up!” he repeats, louder this time, and still, nothing, so he jogs back towards the edge of the forest, determined to escape this stupid forest. 

It’s a shock, to say the least, when he finally reaches the treeline and is faced with dusk. The sky is darkening, and Louis has begun to feel like he’s not alone. 

He walks back to the beach, and in the time it takes for him to get there, the sky has turned completely dark, and it’s pitch black outside. Now feeling a little sick to his stomach and like this dream has turned into a nightmare, Louis plans to situate himself on the beach and wait until he wakes up, but he starts when he hears a loud growling sound to his left. 

To his horror, he sees he’s not alone here, and there’s a green-skinned figure in tattered clothes making its way over to him, slowly. 

Louis shrieks and stumbles backwards, squinting through the dark. That can’t be another person, can it? It’s moving far too slowly, and making too strange a sound to be human. Louis comes to the conclusion that it must be a zombie, so he breaks into a sprint towards the shoreline, goosebumps breaking out. Why hasn’t he woken up yet? Usually scary things like this are enough to rouse him. Not today, it seems, because as he runs, he notices more of the green zombie things, and now, he can see something smaller moving faster than the zombie; a low to the ground, black thing with eight legs, and--oh, God, that’s a  _ spider _ . 

When he looks towards the beach, he can see more things moving, so he turns in the direction of what looks like a small range of hills, a little ways away from the sand. He starts yelling. 

“Help!” he cries, as the hills get closer in the distance. “Is anyone out there?” 

The more he runs, the more creatures seem to appear, and they all are drawn to his yells, which means he has a crowd of zombies and spiders and other things he can’t make out chasing him. Finally, he reaches the hills, and his momentum spurs him up a grassy slope. In the valley, he thinks he can see a light flicker. 

“Hey!” Louis shouts. “Help!” But on his way down the hill, he trips, and unable to catch his footing, he tumbles down through the grass, getting dirt in his mouth, and hitting his back on some rocks, which makes him cry out painfully. 

He slows to a stop when he hits the bottom of the valley, and rolls onto his back, which gives him a minute to catch his breath. The monsters are out of sight now, all he can focus on is that light emanating from the base of the biggest hill, right in front of him. 

Louis quickly realizes that the light is coming from a window in the side, and he bangs on it ungraciously. “Help! Is anyone in there?” He starts moving around the cliffside, trying to find a door. 

There’s a hissing sound somewhere behind him, but he doesn’t give up now. There’s more light, and...there! There’s the door! But the thing is heavy, and metal, and worst of all,  _ locked.  _

“Help!” he screams, and looks over his shoulder. There’s a green thing, shorter than him, but long and skinny, and moving along the grass quickly on four stumps for legs. One word flashes into his brain. 

_ Creeper.  _

“Aw, man,” Louis whispers. He doesn’t usually die in his dreams, but he has before, so he closes his eyes, cowering into the big door, waiting, when suddenly, it opens, and he goes falling through the doorway, just in time to hear a massive explosion from outside. 

Eyes still closed, Louis does a quick bodily evaluation. Limbs still intact. Head still attached. Ass on the floor. Slowly, he pries one eye open. 

The place he’s in is warm, and bright. He notices right away that there are four people staring at him, all decked out in elaborate armor, while he lies here, cowering on the floor. 

“Hi,” one of the people says, and his voice is deep, but Louis can’t see his face. “Who are you?”

“What the hell is a Steve doing in our world?” another voice chimes in. 

“Bringing bloody creepers to our cave,” someone else says, with a harsher tone. “I’m gonna have to repair our path tomorrow.” 

Louis sits up properly and takes a deep breath. “My name,” he says slowly, through pants, “Is Louis, not Steve. And I have no idea where the fuck I am.” 

“I say we kill him!” the first one says cheerily. 

“Hold on a damn second,” one of them says. He takes off his helmet to reveal a head of rumpled blond hair, and tilts his head. He looks vaguely familiar. “Louis?” 

Oh, shit. 

Louis squints. “Niall?”

“What are you doing here?” Niall asks. 

“I have no idea. I just woke up here. And I don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”

The other three take off their helmets too. One of them, the one who suggested killing him, has a head of tangled brown hair. Louis thinks he recognizes him too. Now that he gets a good look at the rest of them, he thinks he’s seen them before too. “Well, where did you wake up?” the curly one asks. 

Louis stands up and squares his shoulders, bringing himself to his full height. “Over on the beach.” 

All the guys exchange looks. 

“I only went into the forest for a moment, and by the time I got out, it was nighttime, and there were these fucking creatures everywhere.” 

“Niall, you know this Steve?” one of them says. 

“My name isn’t Steve!” Louis exclaims. 

“He’s from Minecon. Isn’t a gamer, though.” Niall shakes his head. “I’ve got no idea how he ended up here.” 

The curly haired one frowns, and blinks at Louis. “Noteblock?” 

Oh. That’s that strange Harry enderman guy, from the convention. Lovely.

“That’s me,” Louis replies bitterly. 

“Come have a seat, Louis,” one of the other guys says, one with short cropped brown hair and brown eyes. “I’m Liam. He’s Zayn. Don’t mind Niall and Harry. They’re not the most welcoming type.” 

Louis staggers over to the table and collapses onto a bench. Almost instantly, a bowl of stew is placed in front of him, which he starts eating gratefully. 

After a while of the group just kind of plainly staring at him, he clears his throat, scraping his bowl clean. “Well, has anyone any idea how I’m to wake up from this nightmare?” Louis asks. “I know this is a dream.” 

The guys all exchange concerned looks. 

“Louis,” says Liam slowly, “What’s the last thing you remember watching before you woke up on that beach?” 

Louis shrugs. “Some video on that projector. You know, at the panel. It was a let’s play. For that awful game, you know, what’s it called…” 

“Minecraft?” Niall offers helpfully. 

“That’s the one!” Louis snaps his fingers. “I dozed off, and the next thing I know, I’m…” 

Suddenly, it all slots into place. The boys all share sympathetic smiles, as if they’ve read Louis’ mind, and know exactly what kind of conclusion he’s just come to. Miserably, Louis flops onto the table.

“Don’t tell me I’m in that blocky hell dimension,” Louis wails. 

“You’re in the blocky hell dimension,” the one in the back, Zayn, chimes in. 

Harry, who has the resting face of a wombat, looks kind of confused. “Why hell dimension? It’s not that bad. Living here is fun. You’re never bored.” 

Louis stares at him blankly. “Living here,” he echoes. “Why the fuck would I be living here?” 

Niall, incredulous, puts another bowl of stew down in front of Louis, which he automatically starts eating again. “What, is there another place you need to be?” So Louis sighs deeply, stands up, abandoning his stew, and walks out the front door into the night outside. 

There’s a massive hole in the ground from that explosion, but Louis skips right around it, already with his mind set on getting back to that beach. Maybe, if he falls asleep again, he’ll wake up in the real world. He just needs to get away from those weirdos. 

Until, of course, he spots a sickly green zombie looking thing, and it automatically makes a beeline for him. 

Louis tries to run, but then realizes he can’t; his legs feel heavy, and his stomach emptier by the second, and the zombie quickly catches up to him. He realizes, soon enough, that leaving that cave was a bad idea; he’s already pretty lost, and when he yells, “Help!” no one comes to his rescue. 

He grimaces as the zombie creeps up behind him, and Louis hears its growl right in his ear. He expects, now, some kind of bite, and braces himself for pain, but instead the thing sort of...slaps him a little, and Louis says, “Oof.” 

It comes out of his mouth without his control and startles him, and when the zombie hits him again weakly, Louis says, “Oof.” He’s walking backwards now, not looking where he’s going, and in between  _ oofs  _ he shouts for help. Just as he thinks it’s over, and he’s going to die from being slapped to death, an arrow lands in the zombie’s head, and it falls over, dead. Again. Louis falls over too, from the shock, he thinks. 

A hand reaches out to pull him back up. Attached to the hand is Niall, who’s shaking his head.

“You can’t go out at night. Too many googlies, you know?” Louis, a sour look on his face, dusts off his clothes, and doesn’t bother to ask what googlies are.

“This is stupid,” Louis replies. “How the fuck do I get out of this game?” 

“Come back to our cave,” Niall tells him kindly, while multitasking and shooting another zombie with his nifty bow. “You can rest until day. Then we can figure out how to get you home, yeah?” 

Scowling, Louis glances at the horizon, where the sun is just beginning to rise. 

“Fine,” Louis says, and the two of them begin back in the direction of the valley. 

  
  


**day 1 in minecraft **

  
  


Louis wakes up to a ceiling planked with wood and a red wool blanket over him. 

He sits up, rubbing his eyes. This doesn’t look like his bedroom, or Minecon. That means it didn’t work. His sleep didn’t respawn him in the real world. He’s still trapped in dirt block hell. 

Niall had shown him to the ‘guest bedroom’ at dawn; the guest bedroom is more like a windowless box in the ground with a yucky-feeling blue rug on the floor and a wilting dandelion at the bedside. He’s never wanted to go home so bad.

The boys’ cave is made up of five bedrooms--one for each of them, and the spare room--an indoor vegetable garden, a furnace room, and a crafting room, whatever those are. Then, of course, there’s the common area; the part of the house Louis was first introduced to, where the dining table is. No electricity, though. No TV. Not even real lights; they use  _ torches.  _ Like they’re cavemen. Which they technically are. 

He treks out into the common room and sees two of the cavemen, Liam and Zayn. They’re rather quiet. He supposes that makes them more fun to be around than Niall and that dumb wombat kid. 

“Morning, Louis!” Liam greets. “Hungry?” 

“Starving,” Louis groans, and collapses onto a bench. “What time is it?” 

“Eight o’clock,” Zayn replies. “That’s how it works here. Your body will always wake you up at eight.” He sounds kind of irritated by it. Louis guesses that’s reasonable, because he is too. 

“I gotta get out of here,” Louis mumbles, but the two of them hear. 

“You know,” Liam says, back turned away from him. He’s tinkering with something on a big anvil. “This is normal life for us, yeah? We’ve been here forever. But none of us have actually tried to leave the game before. Have we, Zayn?” 

“No,” Zayn answers, “But I’m sure it’s possible. Louis’ not even  _ into  _ Minecraft. It was sort of an accident that he ended up here at all.”

“And it’s lucky I’m not into your pixelated hellscape,” Louis complains. “So far, I’ve been attacked by a lot of things, I’ve almost starved to death, and I’ve been forced to abandon everything and everyone I’ve ever known and loved.” 

Liam turns around and blinks. Zayn just kind of nods. 

“How did you guys end up here, anyway? And why did you never try and get out?” 

Liam sighs. He’s holding a metal pickaxe and turning it in his hands. “You know, I suppose...when you love something so much, it just becomes a part of you. And that was kind of how it was for our group and this game. It became part of us.” 

It sounds like it should make perfect sense, but something about it Louis can’t quite wrap his head around. 

“But...isn’t it all a dream?” he asks slowly. 

Liam looks like he’s going to say something, when Niall and Harry come bursting into the room. They’re decked out in full armor--Harry’s is gold, and Niall’s is sort of...chainy. Chain mail, Louis assumes. 

“Spending the day in the caves,” Niall greets by way of good morning, and Zayn tosses him a slab of meat, which he inhales easily. 

Liam walks over to a chest against the wall and opens it. He appears to be the more responsible of the bunch. “Grab some redstone for me while you’re down there. I’ve got to fix that rail the creeper blew up.” 

“Right on,” Niall says. “Want anything, Louis?” 

“My dignity,” Louis deadpans, after swallowing an entire beet Zayn hands him. 

“Don’t be grumpy, Noteblock!” Harry says cheerfully. “Come mining with us, if you like! You ever been mining?” 

“No,” Louis grumbles. 

Niall pauses where he’s poised at the door, and he frowns. “That eager to get back, eh, Lou?” 

“Don’t call me that,” Louis says, which is directed at both Niall and Harry. “And yes. I’m going to spend all day trying to figure out how to get back home, and Zayn’s gonna help me, right, Zayn?” 

“Huh?” Zayn says. 

Niall takes his chain helmet off and puts in on the table. Harry looks a little put off by having to postpone their nerd mining trip. Louis is glad. “None of us have ever tried to leave before,” Niall says matter-of-factly. “It could be dangerous. If you entered some kind of reality-warp, you might never have a physical form again.” 

Louis stares at him.    
“But there’s no harm in trying, yeah?” Niall claps his hands, and then whips a sword out of his armor. “Shall I kill him, then?” 

“No!” Louis screeches, and shoots up from his chair, scrambling as far back from Niall as he can. “No killing me allowed. That’s rule number one.” 

Harry scrunches his nose. “You have Minecraft rules? But there are no rules in Minecraft.” 

“Yeah, welcome to Louis’ Minecraft rulebook,” Louis snaps. “Rule number one, no killing me. Rule number two, no pissing me off. Rule number three, no being a nerd.” 

“Perhaps we could find a more organic way of getting you out of the game?” Zayn suggests thoughtfully. Louis glares at Harry, who just looks sort of confused, as he does all the time. “If you have no past connection to the game, it could be easier to break whatever new connection you formed. You don’t even  _ want _ to be here.”

“What kind of...new connection?” Louis asks. 

“Well, you did something in the real world that established a bond between you and this particular server,” Zayn says. “Probably someone you met.” 

Louis glares at Harry even more bitterly. 

“What do you have in mind, Zayn?” Liam asks. 

“Well, we could just try and progress him out of the game. Maybe reaching certain XP levels would trigger the game to kind of just spit him out. If he does it fast enough, the game might just realize he doesn’t want to be here anyway, and get rid of him.” 

“Progress,” Louis repeats. “What kind of progress?” 

“We can start with little things and build up depending on what works,” Zayn explains. “You can chop down a tree, and then kill a mob, and then mine, maybe find diamonds, and if  _ that _ doesn’t work, then we’ll just get you to the End. That way, you’d just win the game.” 

“Finish,” Harry corrects. “You can’t win, remember?” 

“BEEP!” Louis screams, and Harry jumps almost a foot into the air. “You just broke rule number three, nerd!” 

“Rule number three is stupid,” Niall sighs, throwing his hands up. “Let’s keep our eyes on the prize here, people. Getting Louis home means everyone wins. We go back to business as usual, and he gets to where he belongs.” He walks over and puts a hand on Louis’ shoulder, looking him dead in the eye. “We’ll start tomorrow, yeah? We’ll get you home.” 

For the first time since he’s been here, Louis offers Niall a weak smile. “Thanks,” he says. 

Then, in a gesture that completely ruins the moment, Niall puts his stupid looking chain helmet back on with a grin, and he and Harry walk out the door. 

  
  


**day 2 in minecraft **

  
  


“Go on, Louis! Just punch it!” 

The day before had been an acquaintance to the world of Minecraft. He’s got armor, now, just like the other guys. He’s been taught the basics of crafting--like what a crafting table is and why they exist. He even has a miniature one of his own. He has torches for if he ever falls in a cave and needs a light, which he hopes never happens. His armor is leather, and fits pretty well. Overall, he’s adjusting nicely. 

Every time he does anything, though, he secretly hopes it transports him back to the real world. So far, nothing has worked. So he lets Liam talk him through the process of chopping down a tree. 

Louis stares at the tree in front of them dumbly, and then down at his bare hands. 

“You’re taking the piss,” Louis says. 

“Why would I do that?” Liam replies, and he has a point. “No one wants to see you fail. Go on. Punch it.” 

Louis grimaces and gives the tree trunk a small pat. 

“No no no.” Liam shakes his head. “Give it a good hit. Like you mean it.” 

“This is stupid.” 

“Just do it.” 

“I don’t want to.” 

“Imagine,” Liam says patiently, “It’s Notch. The creator of Minecraft. Imagine the tree has the face of Notch. And he says…” Liam puts on an odd squeaky voice. “... _ I’m gonna put Louis in Minecraft and keep him there forever, and I’m gonna make creepers grief his house!”  _

Louis punches the tree as hard as he can.    
“ _ I’m going to make a lightning storm every day and spawn lots of pigs so they all turn into zombie pigmen! _ ” Liam cries, and Louis punches it again.  _ “And every diamond he finds is gonna spawn over lava so every time he tries to mine it it’ll fall in and he’ll lose his diamonds!”  _

“Stop the nerd talk,” Louis says through gritted teeth, and then there’s a light pop, and the whole middle section of the tree trunk disappears, leaving the top half with all the leaves and branches completely floating. 

“What the fuck.” 

Liam claps his hands excitedly. “You did it! Look!” He points to above Louis’ head, and Louis looks up. There’s a little green banner there, hovering, that says  _ Achievement Get: Getting Wood.  _ It stays there for a moment, and then fizzles out of thin air as if it was never even there. 

“What was that?” Louis asks, even though he’s pretty sure he already knows. 

“You gained XP,” Liam explains, and watches him curiously. “Do you feel any different?” 

Louis looks down at his hands. Punching the tree hadn’t even hurt. His skin looks untouched as before, and he feels...exactly the same.    
“No,” Louis says disappointedly. 

“Oh.” Liam looks a little disappointed too, and Louis wonders if the gamers want him gone as much as he wants to be gone. “Well, we’ll keep trying. Wanna try out my boat? I just built it out of jungle wood.” 

And that’s that. 

~

Louis is sitting alone and mindlessly contemplating the horror of his situation when Zayn walks into his room and thrusts a sword into his hands. 

His first instinct is to scream, which he does; the blade is sparkling from being freshly sharpened, and if Zayn had missed Louis’ hands it would’ve decapitated him. The sword is some kind of metal, Louis suspects iron--that’s the material he’s heard thrown around the most--but it feels like it weighs barely anything. 

“What the fuck is this?” 

“Your sword,” Zayn shrugs. “It’s dusk. We have to go kill something.” 

“Why on earth would I want to go kill something?” Louis asks in bewilderment. 

Zayn sighs. “Do you even care about getting out of this game? It’s like you don’t remember anything we talked about.” 

“Maybe because I expected Minecraft to be more about building epic mansions and not putting my life in danger,” Louis mumbles, and if Zayn hears him, he pretends not to. “What happens if I die in the game, anyways?” 

“Dunno,” Zayn says nonchalantly. “Never happened before.” As if that information isn’t the worst thing Louis’ ever heard, Zayn grabs his arm and pulls him out of his chair. “It’s dusk. Let’s go. Do you have a preference for mob?” 

“What?” Louis responds.

“Zombie it is.”

Louis barely has time to throw his armor on before Zayn is dragging him out the door. It’s almost completely dark out, the mouth of their cave illuminated with torches that only light up as far as five steps from the door. Louis can hear the telltale growls of monsters around them. 

So far, he’s learned about most of the basic mobs, or ‘googlies’ as Niall calls them. There’s zombies, which he feels pretty familiar with, and skeletons, who he’s supposed to steer clear from, because they fire arrows from long distances. Giant spiders, who don’t attack during the day unless you attack them, and of course, creepers, the familiar green things with the dumb faces that look like their creator did shots before designing them. Louis’ also been taught about Endermen, not to be confused with Slenderman, and how he should never look them in the eye, but he’s never seen them. Apparently they can teleport. Louis doesn’t believe a word of that bullshit. 

Zombies are perfectly manageable, he thinks. Louis may not be a pro gamer, but he’s played his fair share of first-person shooters, and killed enough zombies to give him some nice experience. This pixelated thing with a head the size of a television should be no trouble at all. 

They see one soon enough. It’s slowly descending down a hill in front of them, and its sights are set on Louis. 

“Go on,” Zayn encourages. “Give it a good hit.” 

Louis takes a few tentative steps towards the thing. As if the game got lazy with its animations, it can’t even look up or down, so it keeps falling down steep parts of the hill. Louis hears its bones crunch as he nears it, but figures it must be weak enough from the descent to only need a few hits. 

Sure enough, Louis sort of taps it weakly with the side of his sword once, and the thing falls to the ground, dead, before its body disappears in a puff of smoke. He looks up, and there’s that achievement banner again:  _ Achievement Get: Monster Hunter.  _

Louis looks around. He’s still here; still in Minecraft. He hears Zayn walk up next to him and examine the place where the zombie died. 

“Feel any different?” Zayn asks. 

Louis just exhales and hangs his head, before turning and trudging back in the direction of the cave. 

When he enters, all the guys are sat waiting in the common area. They all look reasonably disappointed on his behalf when he walks in, except for Harry, who appears to have the emotional density of a sea cucumber, and offers Louis a glowing yellow apple. Louis takes it, smiling pleasantly, and Harry looks satisfied, until Louis throws the apple across the room as hard as he can. 

“Jesus, Lou,” Niall says, and Louis almost growls at him. “We’ll try something else, yeah?” Harry, still standing with his hand out, smiling, as if his brain hasn’t processed what’s happened, merely shrugs and conjures up another glowing apple out of thin air, this time eating it himself. 

“Let’s tuck in for the night,” Liam suggests calmly. “Tomorrow, we’ll move onto the next achievement.” 

So Louis has no other option but to follow the others to bed. 

  
  


**day 3 in minecraft**

  
  


When Louis wakes up, the first thing he does is roll over and scream into his pillow. 

Day three in this hellscape, and Louis’ not any closer to getting out or waking up. He’s started to lose his grasp on reality, and is wondering at this point if a real world even exists. 

“Rise and shine, Louis!” he hears Niall call from the next room. “It’s pickaxe day!” 

Louis doesn’t know what pickaxe day is, but he would not like to take any part of it. 

He senses Niall’s presence in the doorway, now, and groans. When he catches sight of Niall’s face, his expression is one of pity. 

Later on, as Niall is explaining the boring process of pickaxe making to Louis, Harry walks into the crafting room and dumps a pile of materials on the floor. Louis can vaguely make out some sticks of iron, about five completely intact chicken eggs, some balls of a kind of greenish slime, and a collection of mangled sticks. 

“Ew,” Louis says. 

“No ew, Noteblock,” Harry replies happily. “Help yourself to whatever you need!” 

“Why would I need any of this?” Louis asks. “These look like the materials needed to make Jabba the Hutt.” 

“Jabba the Hutt isn’t edible,” Niall interjects. 

“None of this is edible,” Harry adds. 

“Why the fuck would Jabba the Hutt be edible?” Louis asks. 

Harry blinks, and points to the eggs. 

“He’s not, though,” Harry says. 

Louis puts his face in his hands. “I want to go home.” 

Niall pats Louis’ shoulder gently. “There, there. Harry’s just a little quirky sometimes. He means well, though.” 

Louis peeks out from a gap in between his fingers. Harry is trying to pick up all the eggs at once and put them on the table, but drops one, and upon the impact, the egg shatters and an entire, almost fully grown chicken pops out. 

“Oops,” Harry says. 

Louis closes the gap in his fingers. 

Just as Louis expects, the time in the crafting room making a pickaxe with Niall ends up being pointless.  _ Achievement Get: Time to Mine!  _ is the only positive thing that comes out of it, and even that is the worst thing Louis’ ever had to look at with his own two eyes. 

“Well,” Niall begins, “I guess we know what that means.” 

“I want to die,” Louis says, at the same time Harry says, “Time to go find diamonds!” Consequently, they both glare at each other. 

“This is a positivity-only server,” Harry warns, and that’s the most serious Louis’ ever heard him get. The kid is a clown any other time, but as soon as Louis makes a morbid joke, he turns. 

“Dark Harry rise,” Niall whispers. 

“Oh, really? Well guess what?” Louis asks, and beckons Harry closer. Harry’s gullible, so he leans right in to hear what Louis has to say, and then Louis screams, “BEEP! You broke rule number three again, Ronald McDonald!” 

Harry jumps and looks mortified. “Niall, tell Noteblock to stop being such a…” Harry lowers his voice dangerously. “... _ Butthole.”  _

Louis puts a hand over his heart in mock surprise. “Wow. I didn’t know Boo Boo the Fool here had such a dirty mouth on him. Call me butthole again, I dare you.” 

Harry opens his mouth like he  _ actually might _ , but now’s when Niall interrupts their bickering. 

“God, you two are like children. You’re grown ass men,” Niall grumbles. “Act like it. Jesus.” Then Niall manages to drag Louis right out of the room, but not before Harry sticks his tongue out at Louis childishly, and Louis holds up his middle finger in response. 

~

As if Louis’ day couldn’t get any worse, the guys break the news to him that Harry’s the only one with a map of the cave systems, so if he wants to find diamonds--possibly one of the biggest Minecraft achievements of all time--he’ll need to do it with that human version of a Littlest Pet Shop toy. 

Of course, Harry doesn’t seem too pleased about it either, especially since Louis’ started calling him anything other than his real name. ‘Happy Meal Harry’, ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’, ‘Despicable Me Minion’, and ‘Little Clownfish Bitch Nemo’ are some of the names Louis’ come up with. They’re not that creative, but they piss Harry off, and it’s so funny to see the kid get mad. His face gets unbearably red. It’s hilarious. 

So with the disadvantages of having to go find diamonds with Harry, plenty of advantages seem to present themselves. The first being how close he’s getting to the real world. 

Louis can feel it, now. It’s only been a few days here and he’s already well on his way to finding diamonds and getting out of here. He knows jackshit about Minecraft but if there’s anything he does know, it’s that diamonds are his best chance yet. He just has to be able to find them, which, admittedly, can’t be too difficult with Harry’s help. 

Niall helps arm him with an iron sword, an iron pickaxe, and his usual leather armor. The guys also make sure he has a full stack of food, torches, and a little travel sized bed for if they’re down in the mine for longer than they expect. Louis also gets a hug from Liam, Zayn, and Niall each, in case he doesn’t see them again after the diamonds teleport him out of the game. 

Finally, after many goodbyes, and just as Louis’ starting to think he might actually miss them, he and Harry head out.

It’s a short walk to the mine, and Harry whistles happily as they stroll through the valley. Louis catches sight of a cluster of animals on their way. 

“I’ll never understand why the creator designed the sheep to be so ugly,” Louis observes, wrinkling his nose. Harry frowns. 

“I don’t think they’re ugly. They’re very unique. See how their eyes go in two different directions? I think that’s beautiful.” 

Louis sighs. It’s going to be a long day. 

When they finally get to the mine, Louis is already getting hungry even after eating right before they left, and walking is becoming more and more tiring. That’s the annoying thing about being stuck in Minecraft; he has to deal with all the icky game quirks. If his hunger bar gets too empty, he’ll stop being able to move any faster than a slow walk. 

The mine is dimly lit, and small, rickety wooden steps are the only means of getting down the mineshaft and into the cave systems deeper down. Louis swallows. 

“So where do we start?” he asks nervously. 

“Follow me!” Harry replies brightly, and starts leading the way down the steps. 

A little while into their awkward silence, Louis clears his throat. “How do you even know where to find the diamonds?” 

“I usually don’t!” Harry says, in that same happy tone he always uses. “And they’re even harder to find in this area, as we’ve gotten most in the general vicinity.” He pauses there, leaving Louis’ mouth gaping. He’s never getting out of this place, is he? But then Harry adds, “I remember exactly where we left some ores, though. So don’t you worry.” He turns back and flashes Louis a sparkling white grin. Louis feels the knot in his stomach untangle a little bit. 

Knees sore from the long descent, it isn’t long before Louis starts to get antsy and irritable. 

“How much longer?” Louis asks. 

“Not long,” Harry calls back, and Louis groans. 

“I’m tired, you dumb Pennywise clone,” he whines. 

“Patience is a virtue.” 

“Can’t we just camp here for the night?” 

“No sleeping in the cave systems,” Harry singsongs. “Monsters nearby.”    
“What,” Louis squawks. 

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Harry tells him nonchalantly. “Just mind you and your pretty little head.” 

Louis blinks.

Finally, after what feels like all night, they reach the cave systems Harry’s been talking about. Louis can tell, just from the pressure above his head and the echoey sounds of the rocks, that they’re deep underground. He can hear sizzling from somewhere nearby, something hot touching a damp stone or something. 

“Lava!” Harry exclaims, as if he’d read Louis’ mind.    
“Lava,” Louis repeats. 

“Yeah. Like that molten hot stuff that comes out of volcanoes, you know?” 

“I know what lava is, you walking Hello Kitty fursuit,” Louis says flatly. 

Harry starts singing some song--” _ I lava youuuuu…” _ \--as he leads them over intricate pathways suspended over pools of water. Most are made out of rocks stacked together, some are a soft, spongy dirt. Harry’s footsteps seem pretty certain, so Louis just copies his movements.    
“We’re getting close,” Harry says suddenly. Up ahead, Louis sees it; a glowing, bright orange pool of lava, bubbling. “I hope you enjoyed your time in Minecraft, Noteblock, because it looks like you’re going home soon.” 

Pleased at the recent developments, Louis feels a weight lift a little off his shoulders. “What even  _ is  _ a Noteblock?” 

Harry is quiet, thoughtful, for a moment. They’re close to the lava; Louis can feel the heat radiating off it. 

“You were the sound guy,” Harry begins, “At Minecon. There was a noteblock on your shirt.” 

“You remembered me,” Louis says. “My first night here. How is that possible? That we met in the real world and then again here? How is any of this possible? Will real-you remember me when I get back? Will any of you have any recollection of what happened?” 

Harry starts walking over a bridge that goes over the lava, treading carefully. Louis grimaces, and reluctantly follows. 

“Just...picture whatever you want,” Harry muses, as if it’s the simplest thing in the world. “Whoever you want. Any people you want in your life. Anything you want will translate over to the real world. You just have to know what you don’t want.” 

“Well, that’s cryptic as hell,” Louis murmurs. ‘What if I don’t know what I don’t want?” 

Harry is silent for another moment. “Then know what you  _ do  _ want,” he finally responds. 

They get over the lava bridge, and finally come standing side by side. They’re in a massive stone cavern, illuminated by the light of the lava, the only telltale signs human life has ever walked here being the few torches positioned on the walls of the cave. Harry sighs happily, and his face splits into another bashful, childish smile. 

“Look. Over there.” He points, and Louis follows the direction of his finger. In the wall of the cave is a faint, pale blue glow. 

“Diamonds,” Louis breathes. 

Harry gestures to his pickaxe and steps back for him to do the honors. 

_ I could go home now,  _ Louis thinks. He walks towards the diamonds, and then turns around to look at Harry, this ridiculous, clumsy, green-eyed horse-girl motherfucker who’s still humming that lava song to himself. 

Then he turns back to the diamonds, and digs the sharp end of his pickaxe into the soft ore. 

The big hunk of sparkling gemstone falls right into his hand, and he looks up.  _ Achievement Get: DIAMONDS!  _ Louis looks behind him. Harry is standing there, looking baffled. 

“Did it work?” he asks. 

“What does it look like, Pinkie Pie?” Louis sighs, and he deflates, as the diamond slips out of his hand and falls to the ground. “I’m still here, aren’t I?” 

Harry walks over to him and picks up the diamond, handing it back to him. “That’s yours. Keep it.” When Louis doesn’t meet his eyes, and instead his gaze falls to look at the ground, Harry tuts. “Don’t be sad! That means we get to do the next fun thing. I had so much fun finding these diamonds with you. Didn’t you have fun, too?” 

“No,” Louis says. 

“I know, right?” Harry puts his hands on his hips and shakes his head, grinning. “What a great time we’ve had. Let’s get you to the Nether, shall we?” 

Louis doesn’t really have much choice when Harry turns on his heels and starts strolling back in the direction of the lava bridge, whistling to himself. So, after another helpless sigh, Louis tucks the diamond ore into his inventory and begrudgingly follows. 

  
  


**day 4 in minecraft **

  
  


After a full morning of recovery from last night’s adventures, Niall drags Louis out of his bedroom, shoves as many loaves of bread into his inventory as he can, and pushes him right out of the door. 

“Close your eyes or I’ll kill you,” Niall instructs, and blindly, Louis stumbles through the valley with Niall’s loud footsteps as a lead. (Niall doesn’t think things through and doesn’t bother to give Louis any kind of physical guide, so Louis just has to suffer.) 

At last, when Niall allows Louis to open his eyes, he nearly falls over backwards. All the boys are there, and they scream “ _ SURPRISE! _ ” as loud as they can before he’s even managed to take in the scene. 

Someone’s dragged a pink rug out to the grass, at the shore of a little pond, and it’s overlooking a quaint little flower field, where sheep and cows are grazing, and in the pond, a lonely but happy looking chicken is bobbing up and down in the water. In the middle of a rug is a beautiful big cake. 

“What the fuck is this?” Louis asks, rubbing his eyes so they adjust faster. 

“Your party!” Niall exclaims. “It’s a ‘we’re-very-sorry-about-everything-so-here’s-a-cake party.”    
“I came up with the name,” Harry says frankly. 

Louis shakes his head, taken-aback, and then he laughs. “You fuckers,” he chuckles. “This is ridiculous. All I’ve done is bring you lot trouble and make you put up with me.” 

“You’re our friend, Louis,” Liam says sincerely. “It’s the least we can do. It’s not your fault you ended up in this game.”    
“Well, it probably is,” Zayn interjects, “But that doesn’t make it fair.” 

And so Louis’ fourth day in Minecraft consists of lazing about in the sun, laughing at stupid things like how the sheep look in different directions with both their eyes—much to Harry’s dismay—and eating a very tasty cake. They all agree that in an alternate universe, they have a band called One Direction, just to make fun of the sheep. Niall thinks it’s fucking brilliant. Harry thinks it’s ‘rather offensive’. 

“You know,” Louis says thoughtfully, as the sun is beginning to set. He hears music start to play from somewhere in the distance, and realizes it’s that same music that had begun playing his first day here. It’s quiet, just the sound of nature and the tinkly piano around them, and it’s peaceful, something Louis doesn’t get from the real world that often. “When I got here, I thought this would be the worst experience of my life. But to be honest, it hasn’t actually been that bad. I mean, I’ve made some new mates, except for Twilight Sparkle over there—” Harry makes an indignant sound, “—and I feel like I’ve learned some shit about the world, and about gaming, and I learned to use a sword, which is pretty sick. So thanks guys. For not actually making my time in Minecraft—time-craft, haha—a total living hell.” 

“Cheers,” Zayn says softly, and the other guys murmur their assent. 

“It’ll all pay off when we get you to the Nether tomorrow,” says Niall. “I’ve got a good feeling about this one.” Niall sits up and helps himself to another slice of cake. “Liam knows more about it than I do, but something about getting an unknown being to a different dimension is bound to trip the game out enough to spit you out. I doubt you’ll even get through the portal before you’re waking up in the real world, in just the place you were last.” 

“Minecon,” Louis sighs in disappointment.

“Ah.” Niall smiles wistfully. “I love to think of Minecon. What a fun place it must be.” 

“You were there,” Louis tells him, furrowing his brows. “That’s where we met, remember?”

Niall just says, “Ah,” again. Louis doesn’t know what the fuck that means. 

“You understand what I mean now, though, right?” Liam asks dopily. He’s full from all that sugar. “How the game becomes part of you?” 

Louis does. He’s pretty sure the game had already become a part of him when he stopped being able to distinguish Minecraft and reality. He’s started to think that maybe there’s nothing to distinguish, and that there hasn’t been all along. 

“A piece of Louis is gonna be in this game forever,” Harry drawls. “No one who sets foot in this game can ever really leave it.” It should be sinister, but it sounds pretty hopeful coming from Harry’s mouth. 

Everything is kind of just a floaty cloud of nonsense at this point, but regardless, Louis has a feeling this world and the real world might be more intertwined than he thinks.

  
  


**day 5 in minecraft**

  
  


Niall keeps his ‘pet Nether’, as he calls it, underground, in a cold corridor that’s connected to the rest of the cave via wooden hatch in the floor. 

Louis doesn’t know anything about the Nether, and he makes this pretty clear, so the boys decide it’s best to prepare him as thoroughly as possible. Harry says the Nether is like earth, but with no seasons, or days, or time, or nature, just a lot of funky-looking mobs and lava everywhere. Also, supposedly there are giant cloud babies that breathe fire called Ghasts. Louis thinks he’s being pranked. 

“We don’t expect you to get that far, though,” Liam tells him encouragingly. “Hopefully you don’t even get past the portal.” 

Niall still gives him a sword, just in case. Louis doesn’t ask what “just in case” means, and trusts Liam’s word instead. 

After a big breakfast that fills his hunger bar completely, the group follows Niall through his trapdoor and into the underground lair where his Nether portal is stored. 

“What does it feel like?” Louis blurts out, after a while of walking in somber silence. “Going through the portal?”

“Not really like anything,” Niall shrugs at the same time Harry says, “Like you’re being flushed down a toilet.” But Louis doesn’t let their words faze him. He has a good feeling about this one; like he might very well be taking his very last steps in Minecraft right now. 

The famed Nether portal turns out to be exactly what Louis expects. It’s big; the frame is made out of some kind of black stone--obsidian, Liam says--and inside the frame is a swirling, transparent, glowing purple screen. It’s supernatural, and really freaky, to say the least. Louis’ never seen anything like it. 

“So that’s it, huh?” Louis says. There are faint sounds coming from the portal, like the noises are travelling all the way through from the other dimension. 

“That’s it,” Niall replies. “You ready?” 

“Wait,” Liam says, and when Louis turns, his brows are furrowed. “There’s something we haven’t considered.” 

Louis gawks at him, but Niall rolls his eyes. “What are you talking about? We’ve covered everything. He’s armed; he knows exactly what to do if it doesn’t work.” 

“No, no,” Liam mutters, shaking his head. “We haven’t thought about what happens if the game crashes while he’s in the portal.” 

“The odds of that happening are slim to none,” Zayn says. 

“But we’re trying to get him  _ out _ ,” Liam tells him. “Do you remember that bug we heard about? The one where the game would crash if you went in the portal, and when you respawned in the Nether the portal would be gone?”   
“Excuse me?” Louis says. “You’re saying there’s a chance I’ll be stuck there with no way to get back?” 

Liam sighs. “I don’t know. We can’t say for sure.” 

“Well, what would happen if one of us went as well?” Niall asks. “That way the portal will pick up on, I don’t know, some positive energy, and ignore the negative energy, and just act like normal?” 

“Did you just call me negative energy?” 

“It could work,” Zayn says slowly. “But I’m not going.”    
Harry steps forward. “I’ll do it,” he announces. 

“Great!” Niall claps his hands. “Godspeed, my friends.” 

“Hold on a damn second,” Louis interrupts. “If it does work, then won’t the game just end up spitting us both out? That means Harry too.” 

There’s a moment of silence where they all digest what Louis’ said. 

“It’s unlikely the game would spit out Harry,” Liam says after a minute. “Very unlikely. It’s highly probable Harry would just be sent to the Nether, and could just come back through the same portal. But...there is a possibility that he would despawn too.” 

“I won’t despawn,” Harry tells them firmly. “I know what I’m doing. Been to the Nether a thousand times, I have.” 

“What happens if you can’t come back, though?” Niall asks. “If the game crashes and the portal disappears?” 

Harry shrugs. “I got a pickaxe on me, a bucket of water. I’ll build another portal. Might take a while but…” He glances over at Louis, whose shock is surely written all over his face. “It doesn’t seem like it'll come to that anyway.” 

Louis puts a hand on Harry’s shoulder, the only physical contact they’ve ever had. “You sure about this, Polly Pocket?” 

Harry smiles confidently, and nods. “I’ll see you lads soon,” he reassures them, and then leads Louis over to the portal. 

“I just wanna say,” Niall bursts out suddenly, “That...it was an honor to share this server with you, Louis.” 

The other lads all smile and agree. 

“And I hope we stay buddies in the real world,” Niall adds, offering him a watery smile. 

Louis trots back over and wraps the three of them in a big hug. “Thanks for putting up with me,” he says, voice muffled. “I’ll see you lot on the other side, in your physical...less blocky forms.” 

Liam wipes his eyes. 

“You ready, Noteblock?” Harry asks, and Louis nods, walking back over to the edge of the portal. “Together?” Harry holds out his hand, and Louis stares at it for a moment, wondering if sparing his dignity will be so worth it in the end. 

“What if I get back and it’s like nothing changed at all?” Louis whispers, low enough so only Harry can hear him. “How will I know that any of this even happened?”

Harry just beams. “Don’t worry. You’ll know.” When Louis still looks unsure, Harry nudges him with his shoulder. “I promise. The universe will give you some kind of sign.  _ I’ll _ give you some kind of sign.”

So finally, Louis takes Harry’s hand. 

“Together,” Louis echoes.

They step into the portal, and Louis doesn’t look back. 

~

Loud. 

That’s the first thing he notices about the Nether; that it is very loud, and bright, and it smells like diapers. 

Louis makes a mental note to smack Niall upside the head when he gets back to the overworld. He hadn’t been told the mobs here were all tween boys. He keeps his eyes closed, for now, enjoying the fluttery, warm sensation the portal had given him. 

It’s now when he realizes his back hurts. 

He doesn’t remember feeling any pain since he woke up in Minecraft. None of the guys had mentioned anything about pain in the Nether. Unless…

Louis opens his eyes. 

“ _ And let’s hear a big round of applause for Minecon 2011’s amazing panel!”  _

He sits up straight, blinking so his vision clears faster. He’s in a plastic chair, on a carpeted rug, and he’s at side stage of...oh no. 

The gamers begin to file off the stage, and Louis knows right away what’s happened. He’s not in Minecraft anymore. He’s at Minecon, the convention for blocky-hell-dimension enthusiasts, and it was all a dream, wasn’t it? The strangest social awakening Louis’ ever had was an incredibly vivid, long dream.

Louis silently accepts the mics from the gamers as they leave the panel, but then suddenly he looks up and finds himself face to face with Zayn. Zayn from Minecraft. Zayn the mysterious weird guy who helped Louis get out of the game when Louis wasn’t even sure that was what he wanted. Zayn hands him his microphone, and then walks off, no recognition on his face. 

And then...Harry. He looks just the same as he always has, his hair a mess, his limbs too long for his body, singing some song he just made up to himself. He meets Louis’ eyes, and smiles, placing his microphone right into Louis’ hands. 

“Thanks,” Louis breathes. 

“Don’t mention it, Noteblock,” Harry answers, and strolls away casually to join Zayn. 

Liam is the next person to step down from the stage, but Louis isn’t paying attention to him. He’s too busy watching Harry, who glances back and shoots Louis a wink before tripping over a wire on the floor. 

_ The universe will give you some kind of sign. I’ll give you some kind of sign. _

“Cheers,” Louis says to himself, unable to contain his own grin, and drops all the mics in the crate at his feet. He realizes he’s still standing there, smiling at the floor in wonder, when a loud, brash Irish voice rings out across the stage. 

“Yo, sound guy! I’ll give you fifteen bucks to buy a large cheese pizza, yeah, and you can keep the change! Sound like a fair deal?”

“Fair dos, Niall.” Louis laughs in wonder, looking up at the projector, where the let’s play is still rolling. The player is in the middle of chopping down a tree. Louis looks back over at where Harry, Liam, and Zayn are taking pictures with some young fans. Harry pulls a funny face, which makes a little girl in a creeper hoodie double over with laughter. 

“Fair dos.” 

  
  
  


**epilogue **

  
  


** _Create a Minecraft.net account today!_ ** _   
_ “I can’t believe I’m spending my money on this bullshit,” Louis complains. 

“Just do it!” Niall seems to have entered an area with poor service, because his voice keeps cutting in and out. “You won’t regret it.”

“What, you and I spending our days off playing a first person building game for little kids? Sounds like something I certainly won’t regret,” Louis says sarcastically, but clicks the link anyway.

** _Ready to buy Minecraft: Java Edition? You just need to set up a Mojang account. Enter your information here!_ **

“Just think about it,” Niall exclaims with an unreasonable amount of enthusiasm. “We’ll have the sickest survival world anyone’s ever built. And with being in Liam, Zayn, and Harry’s videos, we’re bound to get famous. Minecon 2012 panelists, we’ll be!” 

“Sounds fun,” Louis deadpans. 

“Fill out the thing, you twat,” Niall shouts into the phone, and Louis winces. 

** _Username: _ **

Louis sighs. Since Minecon, he hasn’t forgotten about that dream. It had felt so real. Vivid enough, lucid enough, that Louis thinks it might’ve been magically reflecting the real world all along. And with the way the future seems to be panning out for him as a gamer...well, Louis feels like it would be silly not to let some magic into his life. 

“What’re you making your username?” Niall asks curiously. 

“You’ll see,” Louis says. 

** _NoteblockLouis_ ** , he types. It looks nice enough. Rolls off the tongue well. 

Louis fills out the rest of the information quickly, barely skimming the terms and conditions, because he knows if he dwells for too long he’ll decide against creating this dumb Minecraft account for himself. 

“You know, once you’re in it, you’re in it for life,” Niall tells him. His words sound strangely familiar. 

_ “A piece of Louis is gonna be in this game forever. No one who sets foot in this game can ever really leave it.” _

“I know,” Louis says. 

** _Create your Minecraft.net account?_ **

Louis hits enter. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hope that made ur life a lil happier :)  
again here's my [tumblr](dystopianharry.tumblr.com) so u can come make fun of me! see u in the next one folks
> 
> \- bella xoxo


End file.
